Darkness and Light
by M. H. Bard
Summary: Something has changed. In between destroying the Grave Eclipse and going out to try and save the world again, Matthew has to face some hard truths about himself and Sveta, truths that will change things in unseen ways. Spiritshipping  Matthew/Sveta.


Darkness and Light by M. H. Bard.

Spoilers for the whole of Dark Dawn. A lengthy Matthew POV one-shot featuring a few of my predictions for a possible Dark Dawn sequel, all wrapped up in some Matthew/Sveta goodness. Enjoy.

-o-

The forces of the unseen manifested one day, and the Grave Eclipse threatened the world. Swallowed up Sveta's hometown whole. Cast a shadow and unleashed creatures made up of pure malice and wielding unimaginable power. We had a ship, and the eclipse hadn't touched all of the traversable seas yet. So when we left the shadow of the eclipse and took in a breath of air, we all got to watch the sun's rays reflect off the clear blue ocean. The pureness of untainted air stung our nostrils. The middle of the day brought heat, _glorious_ heat, in the aftermath of a time where all I thought I'd feel was cold.

Dry land was glorious. My natural Earth affinity made the experience of docking Eoleo's ship all the better, the soil and the grass welcoming me like the warm embrace of a loving parent. Like the feeling of pride I'd get every time I thought of how far my friends and I had progressed. And when we eventually picked up Himi to help us hunt down the Umbra Gear, she and I would always share a secret grin when we dry land and felt our Venus Djinni perk up at the contact. We weren't alone in that - Rief and Amiti would naturally find themselves sleeping in positions where they could hear the ocean the loudest as they slept. Tyrell and Eoleo would be filled with boundless energy every time they found a heat source. Karis would revel in each approaching storm, feel the slightest gust with a blush on her face, an almost orgasmic pleasure surging through her.

I only noticed because Sveta would be the same, the normally reserved adept gaining a bit more colour in her cheeks, her default wary expression being overcome by the tiniest grin. Every time a good wind hit the group, I found myself glancing her way. And every time, I'd imagine the rare grin was directed my way. Once or twice, it was.

So when I noticed she started taking less pleasure in the wind more and more, it made me realise something was wrong.

But not just with her - after fetching yet another piece of the Umbra Gear, we had to venture back into the eclipse and head out to the snowy regions beyond the small cabin where Hou Zan had died. Like always, I held my breath and awaited the familiar coldness of the eclipse's shadow. The anticipation helped just a little every time, but this time it didn't seem sufficient. We crossed the line and things went _dark_. The cold crept up my arms like usual, but this time it was so much worse. I found myself vomiting over the side of the ship, and unlike any other Earth Adept I had known, I wasn't the type to get seasick.

Tyrell cracked a joke about "it" finally happening. Karis told him off and Himi came over to check up on me. She was looking a little green herself, but had all the makings of a creepy adult in a barely teenage body, and her face was resolute - whatever ancient power that had gifted her the Third Eye had left her with a thousand-yard stare and the ability to not vomit her stomach out on a rocking ship nine times out of ten.

Lucky kid. I told her I was fine, and she and the others took that at face value. Except Sveta. She was busy standing near the ship's bow, her back turned to us. I found myself gravitating to her, not an unusual thing, I realised - meal times, scouting missions... We always pulled together.

"You okay?" I asked, but I needn't have. She didn't turn my way, but I eventually arrived at her side and caught the look on her face. "Oh."

It was the same look she'd get during a windy thunderstorm. But there was no wind, no thunder and no lightning to be seen or felt. There was only darkness, and Sveta was revelling in the power.

That was new. I kept my mouth shut, though. She eventually came down from her high and acted like nothing had happened, starting up a conversation about our favourite foods. And, because it helped me ignore the cold pit in my stomach, I found myself returning the banter.

Eventually we got out of the shadow again, and as soon as I felt the light, it was like something had changed everything inside of me. The cold was warm. The nausea was a tingling feeling, like I was pleasantly sated. The dryness of my mouth turned into a trickling freshwater spring.

At first I was sure it was a little bit of my mother's latent Mars powers coming through in me, especially after the drain the Eclipse had brought. But I was so pleased to be away from that damned shadow that I didn't think much of the whole incident at the time. I didn't think much about how Sveta almost looked disappointed to be out in the sunlight again.

In hindsight, I really wish I had saw the signs for what they were earlier. But bigger concerns came up, and soon I found myself excusing away those thoughts.

-o-

At eighteen, I had saved the world. The Apollo Lens had been activated, calibrated and had destroyed the Grave Eclipse. The shadow was gone, Belinsk was in one piece again and all it took was meeting my parents' biggest foe, fighting off the soldiers of Tuaparang, merging my soul with Sveta's and nearly sacrificing myself to save the world. The soul merging wasn't exactly what I first thought it would be - I was expecting an insight, an instantaneous knowledge of everything that Sveta was and all that entailed. Something deep and philosophical like that, the kind that stories would be written about, most of them overdone in their prose and intent on drawing in the starry-eyed readers with their romanticism.

No, it was... odd. At first it felt like getting my mind read - and trust me, I had the pleasure because of growing up near enough some mind-readers like Karis's father - and the tingles didn't stop even as I technically left my body. It didn't feel like I actually had left it though. I felt like I was moving around as usual, and the usual boosts I was getting from my Djinni and the power of the Apollo light were helping keep me focused and calm, as per the norm. No, I helped get the Apollo Lens back on track easily enough, but then the realisation hit me: I was controlling Sveta's body with the ease and the feeling as if I were controlling my own.

Trying to imagine what it would feel like for her threw me through a loop, and I almost debated exorcising my own spirit from Sveta's body. But the Umbra Gear held strong and kept us in the strange bind, and we eventually went on to save the day.

And then I found myself at Belinsk, bowing in front of the Queen.

"You may rise," she said regally, a front for all of the assembled councillors and guards. The rest of our team sat on one side, smiling happily as I got knighted. The first human knight the Morgal beastmen had accepted into their ranks. Sir Matthew. As immature as it sounded, I really wanted to rub it in my father's face a little. We both saved the world, sure, but I was a Sir Matthew. I knew Garet would help me tease him, and I knew my father would complain but eventually relent to our teasing and just relax. From a young age I knew that being away from my mother and up at Mount Aleph for weeks at a time depressed him occasionally, and making things light was just part of the plucky young son's job.

I rose and looked at Sveta. She was dressed in a red gown befitting her current position, and I liked the look. I liked her in normal clothes more, but the gown was almost like a treat - nothing I wouldn't want to see again, but something that felt rare and had to be savoured. One of the Queen's new haidmaidens had ever let out her hair, and for the first time I saw long and straight lavender hair going down to her waist. Another treat.

As if reading my mind without, you know, actually reading my mind, Queen Sveta's mask twitched and her eyes lit up for the first time since her brother's death. She had no doubt noticed my gaze, but I didn't mind. I didn't know how long it'd be until I saw her next, same with Rief, Amiti, Eoleo and Himi. Tyrell, Karis and I were heading out the next day, planning on going home and warning our parents about the new potential threat, not to mention get that soarwing fixed.

Huh. Funny how I'd almost forgotten what got us into this mess in the first place. Things and people had come up. I'd saved the world. The soarwing just didn't seem that important anymore.

All I wanted at that moment, more than anything, was for Sveta to drop the regal mask, for her to join me and the gang in a private room where we could talk and reminisce before I left. But I still smiled throughout the pompous ceremony and accepted a small Morgal royal treasure as a token of my service to the country. Sometimes I had to do things that I didn't want to. Just because my journey was over didn't mean that would change.

I didn't get my wish, but the biggest booth at Belinsk's tavern and a round of Eoleo's various alcoholic concoctions was as good a replacement as any. A drunken Tyrell found himself hitting on one of the prettier women working there, and the rest of us just watched the spectacle for a moment, awaiting for the logical conclusion. It didn't come, and attentions drifted.

Amiti, ever the logical one and the one who was the least drunk, was the first to try and put a wet blanket on the celebration and glared at Eoleo. "You're a grown man trying to get teenagers drunk."

"Tryin'?" the pirate parroted with a grin. "I'm succeeding, you mean. Loosen up, prince boy. From one royal to another."

"You are not a royal!"

"Pirate royalty, kid. Still counts."

"No it doesn't! You have to-"

I tuned them out and titled my head towards Karis, Rief and Himi. Himi was passed out on the table, her sole drink still half full. Karis and Rief, meanwhile, were debating something in their usual rational way.

"I'm telling you that the colour of the potion isn't quite an indicator of anything," Karis said vehemently.

"My mother's research has shown that blue is an indicator of-"

"And if somebody put in colouring of some kind without effecting the potency? Like an artificial colour?"

And then Tyrell came bounding over, grinning like a madman. He directed his drunken grin at me specifically, and I looked over his shoulder - the girl he was chatting up was looking our way, her gaze centred on either my hair or Tyrell's backside.

"Matt," Tyrell murmured, "You have our room key. Can I borrow the whole room tonight? I'm sure you'll find somewhere else to sleep."

I figured passing out in an alcoholic haze would be my option for the night, but if Tyrell wanted to get lucky with a beastwoman, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't help him out? I handed him the small brass key I had in my pocket, and he took it gratefully.

"Any advice?" he asked.

I looked at him blankly in reply. Womanising was more his, Eoleo's and occasionally Amiti's thing than mine. I could've told him to be careful not to throw up on her in the middle of the act, but that would just shake his confidence. Instead, I continued to look at him blank-faced.

And at that moment, one of the weirdest experiences of my life happened. It was less of a pure weird moment and more an odd coincidence, similar to one as if everybody in a room was talking about you. Logically, I knew it wasn't a big deal, but it jolted my drunken mind enough to almost knock me from my seat.

Amiti was defending his heritage.

Rief was mentioning his coloured potion theory.

And Tyrell said the magic words.

"The Queen of..."

"... lavender-coloured..."

"You know, _advice._ Like whatever you used on Sveta."

I found myself glaring at Tyrell. Hard. Something pierced the alcohol hazing his cognitive senses and he understood I wasn't in the advice-giving mood right now. And I wasn't even looking at them with the same look, but Amiti, Eoleo, Karis and Rief all quietened and moved on to other topics. I stewed in my chair and thought about coincidences, darkness and the red gown. My thoughts pierced the fugue state I was in and asked me what I wanted right at that moment.

I reflexively drank in reply. It was a party, after all.

-o-

Saying goodbye to everyone was hard, especially while hungover, but the journey back home was harder.

First off, the three of us had taken extra party members for granted. For weeks, each day we'd set groups of four and use them to scout ahead or battle the tougher monsters while the other four recovered or prepared food. But with just myself, Karis and Tyrell in the group, we had to try and remember our past selves, back when we had started out. I would set up traps around our designated camp, little seedlings ready to grow into bramble vines and snare a monster if something approached. Just setting up those traps way back when would require so much energy I would be sluggish and tired for the night.

Now? I could grow a whole forest with less effort. Though I didn't - the proper balance of nature versus Psynergy creations was something my father had drilled into me from a young age. Something about upsetting the balance, abusing current power and leading to a repeat of what caused the Jenei to seal Alchemy up all over again.

The weirdness of resetting rotations and schedules aside, we had our off moments while traversing several familiar caves. We lamented the loss of several powers - without Eoelo's Crush Psynergy, we had to take the long way around several small caves and roadblocks. Without Amiti's Insight, Tyrell nearly lost his head when a rogue ghoul had set up shop in the woods we were trying to pass through. Without Sveta's extra senses... Needless to say, there was a period of adjustment that made the beginning of the journey a hazard.

And after that came the truly horrible part. The missing people, not the missing skills.

"Hey Eoleo, you want some more?" Tyrell asked one night, holding up a plate of mysterious meat that he had chargrilled to perfection.

The three of us all caught on to the fact that Eoleo wasn't there at the same time. Tyrell put the plate aside, Karis made an uncharacteristically sad sound into her own meal, and I said nothing.

After that incident, the other two saw fit to revert back to their childhood selves. Familiar arguments filled up the silent void. They did what they did best, and so did I. I got quiet, really quiet.

"I miss them," Karis confessed one morning, taking me aside while Tyrell fetched some water. "I know you do too."

My silence told her everything she needed to know, and she smiled sadly.

"I know it's been longer than I've seen Dad and everyone else at home, but I miss our group more, you know?" She nodded to herself. "Of course you know."

"You're born into your family, and you love them instantly," she recited, a quote I knew was from one of her favourite books. "But there's nothing like learning to love someone new at an age when you can appreciate it."

Nothing like it at all.

Tyrell showed up with our water soon after, and Karis headed over and started an argument with him about something. I titled my head back and squinted at the sun, bathing in the light. Felt good.

But not right.

-o-

I've left things unfinished before. There's always a niggling at the back of your mind that you've forgotten something and that you should deal with it immediately. But see, being distracted by my new love of light and the sadness over parting with my friends and Sveta made me forget that something was unfinished.

The Psynergy Vortex hung in the air, bigger than any other I'd seen. Its mere presence was horrible to be near, the psynergy crackling in the air of a malevolence that reminded me of the Grave Eclipse. For reasons I've already gone into, I knew what feelings would occur if I stayed too long near that type of energy. I edged away from it and headed off across the bridge, only turning my back to the Vortex when I heard Tyrell shout his father's name.

Though what really scared me was the image of looking across the bridge and seeing my father body there. My initial survey of the area didn't exactly help things along - the cabin Dad had built, complete with the telescope Ivan had constructed, was destroyed. A pang of sadness shot through me - though it wasn't my childhood home, I lived there as a teen more than Kalay, being trained with Tyrell and learning about Mount Aleph as I did. Not only had the cabin been burned down, but the whole area looked destroyed - stray spires poked out of the ground, impaling corpses of dark-clad soldiers. Tuaparang. They had come to the nearest site to the Golden Sun. Isaac and Garet had replied. In force.

There were dozens of corpses around the area, and even more ash piles. I wondered how many had been pushed off the side of the steep cliffs that surrounded the area, plummeting into the forest below.

We had had trouble with these soldiers, maybe taking on three at a time each without major injury, their mysterious Dark Psynergy powerful enough to negate our own in such a way that scared me a little. Of course, compared to Sveta's beastform, they were nothing. I smiled faintly at the thought of her, but I soon focused on the matter at hand.

Oh yes, my father and Garet both had some advantages over our group. Thirty plus years of training, exposure to some of the most powerful Psynergies in existence, whatever power the Golden Sun itself had given them. I wondered briefly if the High Empyror of the Tuaparang had sent in a hundred-odd soldiers in an underestimation or an overestimation of my father's skills.

I figured it was the former.

Karis found them both first. She was investigating the wreckage of the cabin when a trapdoor sprung open out of nowhere. I'd never seen that before, but before opening it was well hidden beneath three corpses.

"Dad?" Tyrell asked tentatively, his oversized axe hanging off one shoulder and ready to strike anything.

I fingered the sword I held in my hands, and Karis slowly stepped away from the trapdoor, her rapier gleaming in the Golden Sun's light.

"Tyrell?" Garet's voice called out. "Is that you?"

Tyrell tensed. "Uhh... yeah? Dad, is that you?"

"Uhh... yeah?" was the unintelligent reply.

"Mr Isaac?" Karis announced, her voice calm. "Are you in there too?"

"Karis?" Garet's voice asked.

"Yes."

"No offence, but there's no real way to prove it's you guys. Isaac said his sentry plants told him three Adepts were approaching, but it could just be the second wave."

I rolled my eyes as Tyrell bristled. "If you weren't sure, why did you open the trapdoor?"

A burst of flame shot out of the floor, shot at an angle that missed the approaching Tyrell completely, but would've taken the heads off any threat.

From within the ground, my father's calm and dry voice murmured, "That's why."

"Announce yourselves," he ordered. "If you please."

"It's Tyrell!" Tyrell all but shouted.

"It's me, Karis," Karis all but whispered.

I said nothing, grinning a bit. I knew a few people that would find my reply baffling, but some would understand instantly what my silence meant. My father was not the exception to that rule.

"And Matthew's here," Isaac's voice acknowledged. "Hasn't said a word and my Djinni is telling me Flint's back."

I just coughed in reply. Garet took control of the conversation again. "We're coming out! If this is a trick or something, just know we're going to be ready!"

"Way to be grateful," Tyrell muttered to himself, but he took a few steps away from the trapdoor and lowered his axe anyway.

Garet came out first. Apart from a cut on his forehead that had bled all down half of his face, he seemed fine at first glance. But he held himself unsteadily, and I scanned his body, my gaze resting on his hands. He was wearing leather gloves, though some Psynergy use had burned through the gloves and melted them into a second layer of skin. I figured that's why there were more ash piles than bodies missing heads - the victims of Garet's assortment of axes. It also explained his unsteady gait, both exhausted by the Psynergy use and coming down on the shock of accidentally melting the gloves into his burnt skin.

Karis immediately called up a gust of wind, a calming breeze that no doubt numbed Garet's burns and healed them only slightly. The man smiled genuinely at Karis.

"Thanks kid," he said. "Would've got Isaac to do it, but he was drained and we had no potions. I guess Jenna'll have to look at it."

And he, foregoing manly pride and ignoring the fact he was injured, rushed forward and grabbed his son in a tight hug. Karis watched on, chanting to herself and trying to call up another healing wind.

I got my first look at my father, and saw he was in better condition than my friend's father, though looked no less exhausted.

I guess the biggest indicator he was slightly injured was the knife embedded in his left shoulder. In lieu of an actual greeting, I simply pointed, and he followed my finger's trajectory.

"Oh," he muttered, and with one quick pull, ripped the knife out of his shoulder and tossed it aside. The only visible sign of his pain was a slight wince, soon replaced by a soft smile as he regarded me. "You've grown."

I suppose with the knowledge that the Golden Sun will keep him aging slowly and make me grow old will forever make that statement odd. I said nothing.

"I'm so glad you're all right," he said. "Jenna's been worried sick. Been up here every other day hoping for news, and you know how she gets." He shuddered. "And Ivan nearly killed us when he found out the soarwing was broken. Tell you what, I was almost glad that those soldiers showed up and I got some stress release."

Garet, disengaged from his son and having his hands tended to by Karis's potions, nodded. "Too right."

"What happened?" Karis asked. "Well, we gathered the soldiers showed up and attacked..."

"About three days after the Vortex appeared," Isaac confirmed. "We figured that the Vortex was just a distraction while they could grab something to get them into Mount Aleph."

"Like us," Garet said with a snort. Isaac shot him a sharp look, and suddenly I knew they were talking about whatever they did to lock down the area around the Golden Sun. Top secret Psynergies, the kind that even knowing that they exist would lead to unmaking them. Only the best from the Warriors of Vale's and the Wise One. I ignored that now, clearing my throat and preparing to speak for the first time in a bit.

"We have to talk," I said confidently. "The Vortexes are artificial. We can dismantle this one before it does any more damage. We regroup and talk. I know Kraden's been sending letters, but they're vague. We have the full story. We have unfinished business."

It was the most I'd said to anybody outside of Sveta in months. Even Karis and Tyrell looked mortally shocked.

My father only smiled. "Good plan. Karis, would you please heal Garet's hands? And after that, could you gather any surviving scrolls up and bag them up? I'm going with Matthew and Tyrell to take care of the Vortex."

He had silently deferred leadership to me, and Garet let out a snort as he realised it. "Just like his father at that age. Saving the world left and right."

Isaac smirked at him, and then turned to us. "Come now, kids. Tyrell, would you mind showing me your hands? What's that, you're not wearing gloves? Smart move, Ty. We'll make you smarter than your old man yet."

I had really missed him.

-o-

We found the capacitors that powered the vortex and destroyed them, and by the middle of the night we were on the road, gunning it towards Kalay as fast as we could. Isaac and Garet didn't really want to leave Mount Aleph unattended for too long, but I had set up enough sentry plants that I could detect the smallest insect moving too close to the mountain, let alone an army of soldiers. And we figured that getting the Mountain Roc Feather back to Ivan was worth the risk. Getting that soarwing fixed was still a priority.

But we still took a break as sunrise approached, stopping for a meal and a quick chat but nothing more. Karis did her best to summarise the events as she could, but I just simply handed over my hand-written encyclopaedia and let Dad read it. He skimmed over a few things, like Djinni and places he already knew of, but focused intently on the pages about the Tuaparang soldiers, Arcanus and the Grave Eclipse.

"Alex..." he breathed, the word coming out of his mouth both like a swear word and with some measure of stunned disbelief. "We thought the Wise One crushed him, but if he's alive and still has those powers..."

"He would've taken over the world by now," Garet pointed out. "I think he's still got some power, but nothing at a grand scale. Why else would he recruit the Tuaparang?"

"Why would he betray them so quickly?" Tyrell countered. "Obviously got what he needed, didn't he?"

"The Grave Eclipse..." Isaac murmured, lost in thought. His eyes soon lit up and he looked to Garet. "You don't think... the Mourning Moon?"

Garet swore. "That's not good," he added belatedly.

"What's not good?" Karis asked.

"The Grave Eclipse was created by that Alchemy Dynamo," Isaac explained. "The Mourning Moon is a natural event since we restored the balance. It's power has yet to be matched, but this Eclipse sounds like its weaker cousin. If Alex could use people into making an Eclipse and those Vortexes..."

"He could be one step away from making a Mourning Moon," Karis breathed, her gaze distant. Her mother had died in the previous Mourning Moon event, I knew. It was one of those things we didn't talk about much, especially with her father around.

"He obviously got what he needed from the Tuaparang," Isaac surmised. "But they also got something out of that relationship too. They attacked Mount Aleph for a reason, either to hold it down from us or mine its power somehow. So it'll be a race. Alex'll be using people up and down the continent to accomplish something we don't want accomplished..." His face screwed up in concentration. "And then he'll just wait for the next Mourning Moon."

Garet swore again.

"The Moon is strong but not something that can combat the Golden Sun, so if he amplifies its power with the artificial one..." Isaac trailed off, lost in morose thought.

Long story short, bad stuff would happen. A Grave Eclipse on a global scale, intelligent and teaming with even darker creatures. The thought made me shudder. If I never thought I'd see the light again, I'd want to die right then and there. And now with Alex heading towards his own goal and the Tuaparang no doubt on their own quest for power...

I'd have to fight again. I'd have to journey. Me and my friends could go back to saving the world.

"Sveta," I blurted, catching everybody's attention. I coloured and quickly backpedalled. "And Amiti, Eoleo, Himi and Rief. And Kraden. They'd want to help. They'd need to."

My father nodded. "I sent a letter to Piers the day the Vortex showed up. We send another and get him to round up Kraden. Then we plan. We'll gather your friends before the deed is done, Matthew. Trust me. But first, we have to go home..."

I stood up and kicked out our campfire. The sun was rising over the furthermost hill, and I pointed down the trail to Kalay. Karis caught on first and stood up.

"We better get going then," she said, giving me a _look_. She knew why I was ready to get moving. Getting moving meant getting things done. Getting things done meant getting back together with my other friends.

Out of our group, I walked the fastest that day. The sunlight on my back helped things along, guiding and pushing me onward.

-o-

By the time we reached Kalay, the sunny day had been blanketed by rain clouds that refused to let out their load. The darkness and the shadow chilled me and put a damper on my brisk pace, but didn't quite drive me to the edge like the eclipse's shadow. In fact, it made me think more than anything. About the good times, and about another of shadow.

Sveta. There was no denying it: she was something special. The group had felt right before her, sure, but it felt wrong after she came and went for the first time. She was smart and capable, loyal to her loved ones and good in battle. Not only that, but she was interesting in a way I didn't quite know how to process. Something that others would've called attraction. I called it a great feeling that I liked to reproduce. So I talked with her, I befriended her and fought by her side, and eventually I figured out that she was like me in some ways, and in her own words I was apparently "confident and loyal, stoic yet fierce". I couldn't transform into a beast or anything, but we still had enough in common to get along easily enough.

Being a leader was tough, but my father said it was a natural instinct inside of me, born of his and my Uncle Felix's leadership qualities. Sometimes it was good to talk to someone. I was the leader, sure, but Karis was almost the den-mother of the group, keeping us all frontwards while Kraden kept us honest. My job was to order people around and make the hard calls in my usual manner. Sveta's own duties became less about fighting and hunting than keeping me afloat. Karis and Kraden both knew that, and that's why they'd always let Sveta handle my occasional problems. We were all a cohesive unit, and Sveta had her part in that.

But I missed her. That's what made her special to me right now. I missed her more than I thought I'd miss a friend. I missed the others and didn't want to forget that, but at the same time, I didn't want to take Sveta's position down a notch. I wanted her to be there and be my support, my best friend who hadn't grown up with me and knew my mind enough to know me but not enough to make it seem like she knew everything that made me me.

Sunlight peeked through the dark clouds, and my thoughts strayed away from her. Kalay was just a stone's throw away, my hometown looking the same as ever. Maybe one or two more houses added, but still a bustling trading centre, merchants of every kind traversing from here to Bilbin and to Tolbi, ensuring a solid enterprising route was kept. The Vale survivors from years back, however, had their own part of the town slightly to the left, notable for a large statue of a Psynergy Stone smack dab in the centre of the area. I smiled reminiscently. I was home.

Dad caught my smile and smiled himself. "I know. It's been a while. Sometimes I truly wish I could stay here for good, fixing up roofs and maybe working towards giving you a little sister, but..." His expression darkened. "Mount Aleph still needs us."

The price he had to pay to save the world, I knew. Not home as much as he should've been. Always fighting. Away from his wife. And people hated him for saving the world, especially with Mourning Moons and the scary and radical changes over the years.

I tried not to think about what price I'd have to pay. Maybe I'd already paid it.

Karis plucked the Mountain Roc feather from Tyrell's bag, gave both of us quick goodbyes and ran ahead, heading towards her house as quick as she could. Tyrell soon followed, heading to the large stately house halfway between Kalay and the Vale settlement, also known as the mayor's house. I wanted to do the same, to run ahead towards my childhood home, but I felt it best to look to Dad first, to see if he was fine with it.

But he was already running ahead himself, outpacing Karis and Tyrell yet making his pace look sedate and easy, powerful strides taking him home to his wife. I laughed a little.

"Does that every time," Garet said to me, holding his bandaged hands awkwardly. "Same process every time. If Jen makes him fix the roof I'm going to feel so old."

I grinned at him, and we kept a sedate pace towards the settlement.

"I'd walk slower if I were you, kid. Your dad's been away from her for what counts to him as a loooong time."

I walked as if my legs were broken after that, and got home half an hour later.

-o-

Dinner was wonderful. My mother may not be the best cook in the world, but when she puts her mind to it, she can cook something exactly the right way because she knows fire and she knows heat. Garet's the same, but she could do full meals rather than the occasional charcoal fish, and she had the patience to see the process through rather than leaving off halfway through to go destroy some rocks.

But what really made dinner wonderful was my father helping out. He and my mother worked as a team, in tandem and complementing their own fire and earth powers in the tiniest ways - him understanding the composition of each vegetable and her knowing exactly where to place a piece of meat in the hearth in order to cook it just right.

I helped too, surprising both of my parents with knowledge I'd picked up along the way. Half our party members were practically royalty who hadn't done much cooking for themselves, but the fact we were a cohesive unit helped things along. It seemed like the tiniest thing at the time, but now it only highlighted things in a way that I hadn't thought of before.

And although I enjoyed being home and eating dinner with my family, I really wanted to be out on the road again.

"You've grown," my mother informed me halfway through the dinner, studying me. She was a beautiful woman with dark copper hair and strong features that kept my father's attention throughout dinner, the big bad warrior becoming a lovesick teenager all over again.

"Fighting does that," he said, poking himself in the arm with a spare finger. "See? Muscly."

"Of course dear," Jenna said, eyes dancing with mirth. "Big manly man and all that. But I was actually talking about... I don't know what it is, really. A spark, the tiniest flint leading the way to a flame as big as the sun."

"The eyes," Isaac said, not taking his eyes off his plate. "When people grow, see or do things, the eyes often indicate the depths of the soul."

"Metaphorically, yes, and yet... they are a little brighter now."

"Must be the power of Venus. Earthly colour mixing in with baby blues."

Could be a remnant of the fusion with Sveta and the exposure to the Apollo Lens' bright light. I didn't say anything, liking the proud tone in both of my parents' voices as they bantered and talked about my changes. Both ate one-handed through the meal, and if I had looked under the table, I would've seen them holding each other's hand tight. The smallest calm before the storm to come. They both knew it, and I had experienced enough to know it too.

Ivan and Karis barged into the house less than a minute later. Ivan had completed the soarwing. Isaac could go back to Mount Aleph. In fact, he had to.

And that meant I had to move on too. Time to save the world again.

-o-

I'd seen my father in action before, and he never failed to impress. This time, even though he only wielded a pen and a dozen of Ivan's messenger birds, he was fast and furious in gathering support for whatever was coming next. He dealt with everything at once, mind working in overload. He worked especially well with both Ivan and my mother, having the former read his mind and get the messages quicker than he could write and having the latter rattle off suggestions of her own.

"McCoy," she said. "Rumours of Bilbin's dealings are all over the country. We can't let Alex or the Tuaparang take advantage of that."

"But we need to stop their advances without destroying their power base and letting them get walked all over," Isaac agreed with a nod. "Hmm... get Lacey and McCoy in a room, and make sure she talks directly with Lady McCoy - we all know she's the real mastermind here. We agree to give them a paved trade route of some kind, something that will guarantee their safety over the mountains there."

Lacey was the mayor of Kalay and Tyrell's mother. Having married Garet of all people, she knew a little something about peaceful resolution while remaining strong. If anyone could stop the McCoys for the moment, it'd be her.

"And one to Belinsk," Ivan said, scribbling down a note. "I've got a few friends at Kolima that can set up a channel through Border Town and try to lessen the pressure from Bilbin around the area. If the beastmen agree to it, it might help relations."

"With the Sanans busy rebuilding, we've definitely got time enough for some peace," Jenna piped up. "Gotta act quick, though. No knowing if Alex will show up and cause trouble before we can make inroads."

"Got to think about the south too," Ivan noted. "Mia will do everything she can, and Piers will make a decent envoy-"

"If he wasn't gallivanting around the world with a seventeen year-old girl," Jenna muttered.

Ivan shot her a wan smile. "Either way, he's got the skills and if worst comes to worst, I have no doubt he could cook something up. Fake a few monster attacks and point to the Tuaparang as the culprits."

Jenna sighed. "He wouldn't if he knew what was good for him."

"Whatever works works," Isaac said, finishing off yet another letter and tying it to a bird. "Ivan? Heading to Tolbi."

Ivan flicked a hand and stared directly into the bird's eyes. A second later, the bird snapped straight and flew out the window with a purpose, helped along by a small gust of wind Karis was maintaining outside. "It's done. I also think we should hunt down some libraries. Use a few of the merchants out by-"

"Do it. Look for Alchemy machines, from Forges to Wells to even giant apocalyptic towers. Whatever it takes."

"Have to get Kraden to look at most of it, but I think a visit to Tret wouldn't go astray. That's where Matthew comes in."

At the sound of my name, I looked up from my spot and put the pens I was filling with ink aside. Mom and Ivan both smiled at me, while Isaac continued to write another letter, this one to Hama, Karis's aunt and Ivan's sister.

"You need me to visit Tret?" I asked.

"After you meet up with everybody," Ivan said with a nod. "I'm getting Piers to drop Kraden, Mia's son and your friend Himi off out at Port Rago. They'll meet you in Border Town, and from there you'll go see Tret before heading south. Your friends Amiti and Eoleo will have a ship ready by then."

"After we stop in Belinsk," I said with more force than intended. Ivan held up a placating hand.

"I'm just saying what Kraden told me. He didn't mention anything about Belinsk."

"Well we're stopping there." And before he could reply or even think about reading my mind, I stood from my spot and left the room.

Of course, my mother followed.

"I know you probably don't want to hear it," she said seriously, "but you need to: Kraden's old and was mad long before his hair turned white. He forgets things."

She said it with such a serious face that it almost made me start laughing. Her own mask cracked and she let out a small laugh, relaxing into an easy, yet worried, look. "Are you okay? You don't have to head out right away. Maybe Isaac and Garet could take you three to the Aleph Ruins and teach you some new techniques..."

I shook my head. "No, it's not that. Something feels off. It has since the Eclipse. Certain things make me think differently. Different elements feel not as they did before."

"Like what?"

"Light." Even the word on its own stirred a feeling similar to it washing over me. "I thought it was, you know, just some latent Mars power, but now I'm not so sure. It's... different than my earth powers. It's..." No word could sum it up.

"Well this is way beyond my worldly knowledge," Jenna joked.

"It just doesn't feel right. I don't want to think about it. Don't want to feel it."

"Matthew, one of the greatest things about you is the fact you feel things at all. You're a great leader because of your empathy, because you can do things and feel them, no matter the choices. And at the end of the day, even if all the choices feel wrong, you can make others feel like it was the right thing to do."

I looked at her. "How do you know that much?"

"Well it'd be easy to say it's because your father and Felix were the same, but I suppose the letters from Kraden have helped me paint a picture. He told me how you nearly sacrificed yourself."

Despite myself, I found my head hanging in almost shame. It may've been the right thing, but it was still dying and leaving my parents behind. The price for saving the world?

"Don't look like that," my mother said forcefully. "You did the right thing. But you're wondering what's different about you lately? The light? I think that's something more powerful than us telling you something. Maybe it's that you're a hero and a good leader, but despite it all, you're not done yet. Light is an eternal symbol against the forces of darkness and evil. And since you're facing only that, that power is just an indicator that you are on the right track."

"But..." I swallowed. "What happens if the next sacrifice actually... goes through?"

"I don't hope for that," she confessed. "I don't even want you to leave, really, but... To put it simply, don't make it an option. Take whatever precaution, do whatever you have to, but be the kind of leader that survives the end of the day with his party intact. Not the self-sacrificing kind."

She drew me in for a hug. "Your dad and I will always love you. You don't need to worry about that."

The reassurance was lovely, but it wasn't what I needed. I needed to go to Belinsk. I knew and yet I didn't. I felt it and yet I didn't. At the time I was convinced only one thing had changed on some level, but it was two.

-o-

Dad took me aside to say goodbye the next morning. Tyrell was having a similar scene with his own family, while Ivan had already left to play peacekeeper at Bilbin. Karis and my mother stood at the side, talking journey basics if only to fill the time before we headed out.

"Remember one thing," Isaac said. "There might come a time when you have to be selfless, and one where you want to be selfish. For a long time in my journey I thought I'd have to choose between saving the world and holding my beloved friends close, but I got lucky and everything worked out. There's no guarantee that it'll work out the same way, son. And I'm sorry for that."

It was general advice at the time. Eventually it'd make sense. It all would.

But there wasn't a time for that. Karis, Tyrell and I headed out of Kalay before mid-morning struck. Dad and Garet had to go up to Mount Aleph, Lacey had to work on negotiations and my mother had taken it upon herself to hunt down her brother for help. I'd never even met Uncle Felix, but my mother seemed sure she'd eventually find him, and I believed her. I had wished her luck, and she had done the same.

"I'm not looking for my long-lost brother," I had replied.

"I wasn't talking about that," she had said. "And you know it."

-o-

We skipped over Bilbin. Ivan had things handled there and we didn't want to incite any rage amongst the tetchy McCoy family, so heading straight to Border Town and meeting up with Kraden was the objective over the next few days. I walked fast, cutting down monsters left and right and barely stopping. My pace simultaneously encouraged and annoyed my friends, though only Tyrell vocally complained. Karis just shot me knowing looks every now and then. I ignored them both.

Border Town, from the Bilbin side, was nothing special, but now that relations between them and Morgal had been set up, things were calm all around. Hell, even a few of the Bilbinites were praising Queen Sveta's work towards making the beastmen seem independent and yet just like them. Talk of Ivan's new influence spread too, and it felt like everything was coming together perfectly.

We passed through the gate and arrived on the Belinsk side of the town, finding Kraden, Himi and Rief waiting for us in the Inn.

"It's good to see you," Kraden said sincerely, shaking my hand. He held the grip for longer than what was considered polite, searching my eyes. "Good grief..."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Talk?"

"Later. We must visit Tret immediately."

"After Belinsk," I reminded.

The scholar didn't say anything. Didn't even acknowledge me. "And then to Port Rago, I suppose."

"After Belinsk," I repeated, this time a little more forceful. He couldn't ignore that tone of voice - I never brought it out without meaning it.

Kraden sighed. "Then we definitely need to talk. It's about Sveta-"

A loud scream cut through the air, and the Inn's patrons stopped everything and scrambled outside. We were at the front of the pack, weapons in hand and Psynergy spell chants on the tips of our tongues. Outside, beastmen of various ages were running for the town's exit. Fires, unnatural purple in colour, sprang up from the ground and impeded their progress. The town was boxed in, and then the soldiers started to appear from the gate. Their black uniforms gave them away - Tuaparang.

I channelled energy within me, surging it and shaping it until my hands glowed with an eerie orange-brown light. With a whispered word, sharp spires grew up from the ground and impaled the first two soldiers, their bodies becoming twisted and their insides hanging off of the spires in bizarre and almost artistic patterns.

All hell broke loose. More soldiers appeared quicker than I could impale them, and nobody let themselves get caught unawares again. The soldiers spread out - half of them split off and focused on attacking the townspeople, slinging explosives and Dark Psynergy like toys and not even pausing as innocents melted or burned in front of them. The other half of the group went for us, and we gave them the same treatment they gave the defenceless beastmen.

No mercy.

I telekinetically threw sharp stones and swung my sword relentlessly. Tyrell controlled fireballs by the dozens, circling around his head like fireflies and directing in the paths he chose for them. Karis called wind and lightning, the former blowing soldiers off balance and the latter striking them down immediately after. Rief would douse them all in water and immediately freeze the droplets with Cold Snap, the unlucky soldiers with water in their mouths or eyes suffering the worst. Himi, little Himi, summoned dragons made of stone and directed them at everything clad in black.

The battle was over soon after, but that wasn't all. There was still screaming and smoke cloaked the town in an acrid stench and black smog.

"The other side," Rief muttered. "The Bilbin side."

We all headed through the gate and emerged on the other side moments later. This side had not faired any better, in fact it was probably worse. There were more people for the soldiers to kill, more houses to burn and more chaos to stir. We sprung into battle immediately, and another round of Psynergy and steel mayhem began.

"Over there!" Tyrell shouted from behind me, gesturing to the burning Inn. Three soldiers could be seen through the wreckage, their weapons out and directed at a family of four. The father of the group threw himself at them in a vain sacrifice, and got burned to a crisp for his trouble.

The mother and children waited for their saviour. I was close enough.

The soldiers were dead moments later, but I hadn't use Earth Psynergy. No, bright light had shot out of my hands, cutting a swath through the fire and the wreckage, taking in the sunlight peeking through the smog and expanding outwards. A blissful sound filled the air, and it calmed me. The calm transformed the beam of light into a sword of pure power, and I directed it with but my hands and my will. The sword blinded the soldiers and caught them unawares as it cut through them. Whatever Dark Psynergy they had on hand to protect themselves from us was no match for the Light, the sword cutting through them in one quick movement and leaving little trails of purple energy behind. But they didn't fall immediately. They stood, eyes no doubt still shut and still blinded by the light. But the sword had gone; they were being blinded by the light inside of them. With a wet, fleshy noise, each soldier was bisected, their top halves sliding off the rest of their bodies and hitting the ground.

The family was safe, and while the others in my group took care of what I could identify as the commanding officer up the way, I turned away from the carnage and found myself looking directly at Kraden.

His mouth was pressed in a firm line, halfway between disgust at the carnage and halfway towards fascination at what he had just seen. Specifically, at what I had just done.

But I stayed quiet, backing away from him and heading over to the others to deliver the final blow against the commanding officer, blasting the man with a blast of Earth Psynergy. His skull finally collapsed against the force, and he crumpled to the ground.

The battle was over. The Tuaparang were getting confident, attacking randomly and hoping for something I didn't quite see yet. Things had changed.

-o-

The aftermath was the truly hard part. The surviving civilians, both human and beastmen, were corralled together just outside of the town on the Bilbin side. That was our first mistake.

Fights broke out. The Bilbinites were convinced the beastmen were in an alliance with the dark soldiers, and the beastmen defended themselves and their queen, citing recent deaths in the Grave Eclipse as their proof of non-alliance. It got messy, but we intervened. Actually, to be specific, I did.

"Enough of this!" I shouted over the din, pushing one quarrelling pair away from each other. I turned to Karis. "Karis, go talk to your father. Have him assure Lord McCoy that the soldiers are not Morgal's and that the threat against everyone is the same." I pointed at Tyrell and Rief. "Get to Port Rago and meet up with Eoleo and Amiti. Don't stop anywhere along the way. Get our ship ready." And finally, I gave Himi a little pat on the shoulder. "Himi, can you stay here and make sure nobody kills each other? Use force if you have to. When Karis comes back, you two head to Port Rago. Kraden and I will meet you there after we see Tret."

My orders were followed. Karis ran off, pushing herself forward with a conjured wind on her back. Tyrell and Rief reluctantly headed out towards Port Rago, and Himi simply planted herself in the ground and held her staff high, ready to summon another golem to stop any further fighting. It was the most unassuming sight in the world, but the angry men on both sides both strayed away from each other lest they get stopped by the girl with the thousand year-old eyes.

"Kraden, let's go," I muttered to him. "We need to talk."

We sure did.

-o-

The road to Belinsk would lead us there by sunset. I intended to be talking to Sveta before then, but before that, I needed to hash things out with Kraden. I had finally figured out what was happening to me.

"I have Light Psynergy," I breathed, the words tingling off the tip of my tongue. "But I still have my Earth, right?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Kraden said. "You have the Venus Djinni on your person, of course, so that may be a factor."

"So that light sword..."

"Was a new skill that tapped into the Light Psynergy inside of you. I'm afraid I don't know the specifics of the craft, but I can safely say its power is only matched by one, one that can defeat it and one that it can defeat."

"Dark Psynergy."

Kraden shuddered. "Shadow, Dark, Midnight... The powers of such made up the Grave Eclipse and the Mourning Moon. Unimaginable and terrifyingly malevolent power to strike the balance of the Light. It actually correlates with a number of unfinished ideas in some ancient Jenei scrolls, not to mention several theories I've been hypothesising since the Golden Sun event."

"Like what?"

"That the Mourning Moon is a natural counterbalance to the Golden Sun. The four elements created the Sun as a symbol of the new Alchemy resurgence in the world. And with that symbol came great power, which Alex tried to tap into. Power of the four elements in their purest form - Light. And where there's a pure form, there's an impure form. Darkness. Shadow. The Mourning Moons come about to maintain the balance and upset the world enough so that the Golden Sun can continue to shine bright each year. The fullest extent of the effects of either, of course, are unknown."

I pondered that. "Alex... got denied the pure Light power of the four elements."

"So he would work towards gaining the impure Dark power of the four elements instead."

"But why me?" I had to ask. "If I could use Light Psynergy from the start, why didn't it manifest?"

"But could you use it from the start? Psynergy is born to us, sure, but you know that adding Djinni to your person augments and adds to that. The great storm over thirty years ago certainly gave a few people Psynergy powers. The lighting of the beacons definitely helped things along and gave out power as such. And Matthew, what's changed since you left home?"

"The Eclipse."

Kraden smiled a little, his crooked fingers moving about excitedly as he thought about it. "Precisely! The power of the Dark corrupted us all in its own way, but something inside of you not only fought it off, but changed your power into Light. A natural counterbalance of the Dark. I noticed how sick you'd get everytime we lingered under that shadow. I noticed how you fought with all the more power up at the Apollo Lens. You were a veritable Ancient, Matthew, fighting with the Light on your back and in your veins. And that power has remained. It will help us in the coming days, and it will help us fight the soldiers from Tuaparang and whatever Alex is up to."

I was unique and managed to gain a new power. I could use it to save the world. The thought made me momentarily thankful to whatever powers that were, looking out for the good of the world and pushing us in the right direction.

"But that's not all..." Kraden said mournfully, and I immediately understood.

There is a natural counterbalance to Light.

Darkness.

I knew why Kraden wanted me away from Belinsk.

"We're going to see her," I said, cutting off his explanation before he could go into it. "I don't want to hear it, Kraden. I need to see Sveta."

Because, as I realised, she had been affected by the Eclipse too. But in the opposite way to me. A natural counterbalance, one that could defeat me or be defeated by me.

Darkness and Light.

-o-

Belinsk's townspeople welcomed us immediately. I noticed more than ever how their very auras radiated light, and some of them even had bright yellow fur in lieu of darker colours.

"The Apollo Lens redirected pure Light to unblanket the town from shadow," Kraden explained. A runner had already been sent ahead at the gate to the castle, and Sveta knew we were coming to see her immediately. "It gave them all a little Light Psynergy. It will keep them safe from the Tuaparang, no doubt."

But their Queen was made up of Darkness. Something in the town's general mood knew that, and a few whispers reached me - how Sveta had withdrawn herself from everyone and how there was distrust in her court. Rumours of her trying to dissolve her own monarchy and give the power to the people.

I only hoped I could see her. Maybe even save her.

We rushed into the castle and were escorted to the throne room. I made sure all the guards were gone before risking a glance at her.

She sat in her throne, looking more than a little uncomfortable to be sitting there. The red gown was still there, and her lavender hair had been taken out of their bindings and cascaded down her back, hiding her elongated ears only slightly and framing her face in a way I quite liked. She stood from the throne, her face made of stone and her hair trailing behind her. One step forward. Two steps.

I took three steps and met her in the middle. Her mask broke and I found myself hugging her, tighter than I ever had hugged someone before. I held on and she buried her face in my shoulder. The tips of her ears brushed against my neck...

And a static shock flickered in our bodies, and we both passed out instantly.

Which was not a good sign.

-o-

I came to first. I was lying on a couch, comfortable in a homely sort of way. I pressed a palm to my head to shake away the dizziness, and I heard Kraden's voice.

"You're awake," was all he said, appearing at my side with a glass of water. I took it gratefully and downed the liquid. "You both passed out the moment you touched each other. The guards helped us move you two here."

We were in Sveta's room, I realised. The Queen's chambers, even. I'd seen it a few times already, and it looked no different now - a large four-poster bed with silky purple sheets, a little couch and small table, several dressers and wardrobes and a bookshelf in the far corner. Kraden had evidently borrowed a book from the latter, an old tome sitting in the armchair next to the couch - something he used to pass the time while awaiting for us to wake.

He retook his position on the chair and put the book aside. "Matthew..."

I ignored the reproach in his tone. "What happened to us?"

"A counterbalance," he replied gravely. "Light and Darkness cannot interact like that. They're in constant war to keep the balance. You are a Light Adept. She is a Dark Adept. There is no changing either of that now."

"But I..." Want to be able to touch her. Want to be near her. Want to fight with her at my side. Don't want to say goodbye again because this time we were mortal enemies. "It doesn't..."

"It does. She sent me a letter a day after we parted ways. She knows what happened to her. She understood. Ever since the Eclipse she felt different, and collecting and wielding the Umbra Gear only served to focus the new power. It made her absorb the shadow. It's what protected her from the Apollo Light."

"But it began before she got the gear."

The scholar nodded. "Because of Volechek, and all of her kin swallowed up by the Eclipse. They were cast in shadow, and she had a blood connection to them all thanks to the mere fact they're beastmen born of Alchemy. And you, meanwhile, were born of two Adepts that were exposed to the Golden Sun. When the Eclipse came, you started to become a natural beacon of counterbalance to the shadow, and it only intensified when you and Sveta merged."

"I absorbed all the light. And she took the darkness because of the connection and the gear. We're tainted in different ways."

"Tyrell asked me after the battle what either of you must've felt when you merged and took control of her body. I gathered you wondered the same?"

I nodded, and Kraden continued on, "I don't know about yourself, but Sveta's letter made it clear what she did - she suppressed her own spirit down into her body, allowing you to control it with a fight. Technically, nothing was inside of her body at the time - you were directing it from afar and she was repressing herself."

I blanched. That was some kind of Dark Psynergy at work. It sounded a lot like the stories I'd get told when I was a kid, about evil sorcerers raising the dead and playing with spirits in both their own body and in others. I'd always rather hear about how my father saved the world from the evil Water Adept rather than the ones with the evil sorcerers with dark powers that weren't supposed to be real.

But they were. One with such a power slept on the bed a few feet away.

"She's not evil by default," I muttered to myself. Kraden heard it.

"But she is _not_ the same," he rumbled quietly. "She's got power that the Tuaparang and Alex both want to fulfil their goals. If she travels with us, there's no telling what'll happen. She'll be used against us. She might lose herself and try to kill us. She might become what her brother did."

"Her brother sacrificed himself."

"For her. And she has no family left."

"That's a lie. She's got us."

Kraden shook his head. "I love her like a granddaughter, Matthew, just like I love you like a grandson, but I'm talking about an actual connection, like the one that started the transformation process and the same one that she could sense Volecheck with. It's what saved us, but there's no guarantee it'll happen again."

Sometimes you have to be selfless, my father had told me. Save the world or keep your loved ones close. There's no way a coincidence would happen again, he had said.

But I intended to be selfish, I intended for no coincidences, and I wanted to get what I came for.

"And what was her plan, Kraden?" I asked calmly, standing up from the couch. The older man soon joined me in standing, his face broadcasting warning.

"She was going to hand control of the country to a court of her peers, dissolve the monarchy and go into hiding with the Umbra Gear. Prevent anybody from finding her and stopping the Tuaparang or Alex from gaining an advantage."

I looked at the sleeping Sveta. Outside, it was nearing sunrise, and I didn't even have to look to see it. No, with the Light powers in my blood, I could sense it coming. I had no doubt she'd be able to sense the night like I could sense the day.

Luck. Selfishness. Connection. Darkness and Light.

Make it happen, Matthew, I told myself. You know what to do. Even if all hope looks lost, you try it anyway.

"Kraden, leave," I said quietly. "Please... I need a moment with her."

"I am sorry my boy," was all he said, taking his leave quickly after.

As soon as the door closed, I found myself wandering to Sveta's wardrobes. All of them flung open with a wave of my hand, and I peered inside. One held an assortment of gowns and the like she'd wear for her Queen duties. Another held weapons and armour, keepsakes of her journey with us. Another had boxes and chests, all locked tight and emblazoned with markings of the royal family - mementos of her family.

I tapped into my Light powers and reached out. I recaptured the feeling I had used to save that family in Border Town, and sure enough, light came out my hands. I let the light hang in the air and watched it, waiting for it to move.

It did, gravitating towards the third wardrobe. I reached in as the light poured through the back of the wardrobe and disappeared, giving the wood a tap with my knuckles.

It was hollow. A false back. The light had moved towards the Umbra Gear hidden inside. I destroyed the fake wall and reached my hand in further, brushing bare fingertips against the Umbra Gear held on their own separate hooks. I steadied my shaking hand and grasped the armour first.

At first, the armour reacted negatively to my presence, and I felt a static shock up my arm, similar to the one that knocked me and Sveta out hours earlier. But I held onto it tightly, pouring Light energy into my fingertips. The light absorbed into not only the armour but the whole set of gear, the blissful sound rang out again, and the shocks stopped their dance. I stumbled away from the equipment, gravitating towards Sveta's large bed and perching myself on the each of it. My fingertips had gone numb and were purpling slightly.

One shot. I place my hand on hers.

She awoke instantly, taking in a deep breath and nearly ripping my hand off in her sudden movement. But I poured a little Earth power into the grip and kept strong, and she returned it. Eventually, her eyes, a little darker than the last time I'd seen them, met mine.

"Matthew?" she said, and I smiled at the sound of her voice.

"Hi," was all I said, rubbing my thumb against her hand in little circles. It felt good. "You're awake."

"So are you." She looked down at our hands. "We can..."

"According to Kraden, it seems unlikely," I said sadly. "But I poured some Light into the Umbra Gear, took some Dark for myself. I just... needed to touch you, you know?"

Her eyes softened and a soft blush graced her cheeks. "I know it."

But the tender moment was gone when I felt feeling return to one of my fingers. The effect would be wearing off soon. I had to get to the point. "Come with us."

"I can't."

"I know what's happened, I know what's changed. I don't care. We'll all need both of our power by the end of it."

"But I can't!" she cried. "I just... If the Dark gets too strong and I turn into what my brother did-"

"It won't happen."

"How can you know that?"

How could I know that? No idea, really. There's a difference between knowing something and _knowing _something, something that existed from the start and you didn't realise it. The first implies I learnt something. The second implies I always knew.

And in my heart, I knew. Light counterbalanced the Dark. A connection, however tenuous, was formed by that relationship. I may not've been Sveta's blood, but the connection between Light and Darkness was stronger. It'd have to be.

"Because I'd stop it from happening," I said, my voice unwaveringly strong. "I'd stop the Darkness with the Light. Just like you'd stop the Light with the Darkness. And it might not seem like it, but the balance must be kept however it could, and I'll need you with me on this journey. I'd need you to keep me in check, just like always. I'd need you to... be there. I don't know if I can go without you."

"But..." Any further protest of her's simply dissolved into near-tears. My fingers no longer felt numb. They felt like they were on fire.

I was never good with words, but I had my moments. The words gave her enough pause, and my actions took me the rest of the way. I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers in a kiss that affirmed our connection.

In more ways than one, I realised. My heart skipped a beat as she kissed back.

Light flared within me, and for glorious moments, it did nothing but just that. But eventually it realised I was in contact with the Dark, even though she was so warm and so... _Sveta_, and reacted. Static shocks drove into my brain and nearly took me out of commission again. I fought it. My insides felt pure heat and every bit of me in contact with her burned and burned. I fought it. I even put my other arm around her back, even though her very hairs were burning my arm. The kiss continued. The fire became less of a problem and air soon did, so we disengaged.

Reluctantly. Very reluctantly.

And even though I didn't want to, I felt my hands back away from her, and watched in fascination as sharp burns in my skin faded into a soft pink colour, the Light inside of me instantly healing itself after the connection with the Dark. I caught a glimpse of Sveta's lips, tiny blisters caused by the connection healing themselves with her own powers.

We didn't say anything until we were fully healed. Until...

"We have to get around that next time," she said, a clawed hand touching at her lips.

My heart hopped, skipped and jumped several beats. Next time?

Unspoken, we had both agreed to continue on. To be there for each other and be the counterbalance without destroying one another. The Light and the Darkness. Perfectly melded weapons of each element in such a way that it could save the world.

But most importantly, we'd save each other.

-o-

It's always darkest before the dawn. I liked dawn, but I liked dusk even more. Our journey took us to new places, and we gained and lost friends along the way, made enemies yet throughout it all, kept things at a balance. We were an unseen force as one, and after a while intimate contact without pain became normal, our powers working together and allowing us our moments of normalcy and love. And if the time came when a sacrifice would have to be made, the Apollo Lens incident all over again but no Volechek to save us, would we sacrifice ourselves to restore the balance and save the world?

As long as we had each other, I suppose we would.

-o-


End file.
